ProAudio Review - May 2008 - (Page 40) STUDIO | REVIEW by Mike Rivers button or footswitch selects between two pairs of rear-panel control room output jacks to accommodate main and alternate speakers. Talkback to the headphone outputs is accommodated by an XLR mic input with a frontpanel on/off switch and volume control. Each analog input channel has a gain control, mic/line switch, and phantom power switch with an indicating LED. Front-panel level monitoring is via 12 4step LED meters. The A/D converter reaches 0 dBFS at the same point that the analog input stage reaches clipping, so the top red LED—really, no foolin’—means clipping. The LED meters can also be switched to display digital output levels and the input level to each of the headphone amplifiers. Higher resolution metering is available on the software console, but the front-panel LEDs will keep you out of trouble if you’re careful to keep them in the green or orange range. Clock source and sample rate can be selected from the software control panel or from the front panel when not connected to a computer, with LEDs to indicate the current settings. The 1200F features a worldwide power supply (100-240 VAC, 5060 Hz) with both a US and European power cord supplied. Two parallel FireWire connectors allow daisy chaining of other FireWire devices which, with the latest firmware version, can be a second Onyx 1200F or a 400F. Due to FireWire streaming rate limitations, only 16 inputs and 16 outputs are allowed at 88.2/96 kHz, or eight of each at 176.4/192 kHz. Input and output limits are counted independently, so at 192 kHz, you can’t, for example, use all 12 mic inputs even though you need only one stereo headphone or control room output. The software console consists of one setup page and 17 pages of mixers. On a PC, it’s installed along with the drivers. On a Mac (which requires no additional drivers), the console is installed directly. Tabs along the top and bottom edges of the screen select the Settings window or one of the mixers. It looks complicated at first, but it’s pretty easy to navigate. The left-hand pane of the Settings window selects the sample rate, clock source, the active stereo digital input (AES/EBU or S/PDIF—both outputs are always live) and its channel status bit format (Professional or Consumer), the source for the Control Room outputs, and the ASIO buffer size. The righthand pane is for selecting the active inputs and outputs when operating at higher sample rates. The mixer can be disabled, turning the 1200F into a straight FireWire I/O interface with 30 inputs and 34 outputs available to the DAW program. Mackie Onyx 1200F FireWire Audio/MIDI Interface This comprehensive, great-sounding I/O offers a dozen nifty Onyx preamps, four stereo headphone amps, 30 inputs and 34 outputs of all sorts, etc., etc — all for a darn good price. The Mackie Onyx 1200F, big brother of the Onyx 400F (reviewed in PAR June 2007) has finally arrived on the scene after being introduced at the October 2005 AES show. At first glance, the $1599 (street price) 1200F is a FireWire audio interface with 12 mic inputs, but there’s much more when you look behind the front panel: a whopping 30 independent input channels and 34 output channels. | FEATURES The Onyx 1200F offers 12 high-quality Mackie Onyx mic preamps, which share XLR Combo jacks with line inputs; 16 ADAT Optical, and stereo digital AES/EBU or S/PDIF comprise the input list. The assortment of output channels is only slightly different; eight balanced analog, 16 ADAT optical, an AES/EBU or S/PDIF pair, and four stereo headphone outputs. There are two MIDI inputs and outputs, word clock in and out, pre-A/D inserts on analog inputs one and two, and analog inputs 11 and 12 can be switched to high-impedance instrument jacks on the front. Whew! It’s all housed in a single, two-rack space, solid-steel box, it’s 24-bit throughout, and supports sample rates up to 192 kHz. The 1200F also integrates 17 32-input DSP mixers and comprehensive (and some not so comprehensive) routing capabilities. In describing the 1200F, I’m reminded of the late-night TV commercial: It dices! It slices! It mixes! But wait! There’s more! Let’s have a look at the details … The main attraction for many will be the dozen Onyx mic preamps. Channels 1 and 2 have balanced insert points between the mic preamp and A/D converter configured as a pair of normalled TRS jacks. Four TOSLink connectors provide 16 ADAT Optical I/O channels at 44.1/48 kHz and eight channels at 88.2/96 kHz using the S/Mux ADAT protocol extension. The eight balanced analog outputs are on a 25-pin D-subminiature connector (TASCAM wiring), each fed from its own mixer. A single front-panel volume control adjusts all eight simultaneously, handy when using those outputs to feed a surround monitoring system. For other applications, this master analog output level control can be bypassed with a button, sending full level to all eight outputs. Individual front-panel volume controls are provided for the stereo control room monitor outputs and front-panel headphone jacks. A 40 | ProAudio Review | May 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.proaudioreview.com
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